Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Full Schedule and Keynote Ticket info for #DBF2016 now available!!!

Full schedule also available now for 11th annual event over Labor Day weekend Sept. 2-4

July 27, 2016 (Atlanta) — The
2016 Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival Presented by
DeKalb Medical (DBF) will release keynote event tickets to the public at
10 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 4.
Cassandra King Conroy, Rick Bragg and other friends and family of late
Southern literary icon Pat Conroy will participate in the keynote event,
titled “The Life and Works of Pat Conroy,” on Friday, Sept. 2 at 8 p.m. at Emory University’s Schwartz Center for Performing Arts (1700 N. Decatur Road).

Tickets
for the keynote event are required, free and limited to two per person.
Those seeking tickets to the keynote event can obtain them by visiting
the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, by calling the Arts at Emory
Box Office (404.727.5050) or by visiting tickets.arts.emory.edu.
Phone and online orders include a $4 processing fee. A limited number
of tickets are available at A Cappella Books, Charis Books & More,
Eagle Eye Books, Tall Tales Books and Little Shop of Stories.

Tickets
also will be available on Aug. 4 for the kidnote address at A Cappella
Books, Charis Books & More, Eagle Eye Books and Little Shop Of
Stories. The tickets are free but will be limited to four per person.
This year’s featured kidnote author will be Dav Pilkey, author of the
Captain Underpants and Dumb Bunnies series, who will launch Dog Man, a
book about a crime-biting canine who is part dog, part man, at DBF.

The kidnote address will be at Decatur High School’s Performing Arts Center (310 North McDonough Street) and will begin at 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 2.
Festival-goers are encouraged to take public transportation, walk or
bicycle, as on-site parking will be limited because of construction at
the high school.

Following the keynote and kidnote events, some of the weekend’s highlights include:

Jacqueline Woodson, Another Brooklyn

Against
the backdrop of a changing neighborhood and a changing world, four
brown teenage girls are figuring out their lives with dreams of
modeling, lawyering, dancing, writing and feeling very real until “the
most beautiful among us” becomes pregnant. Suddenly, the world is
different, more dangerous, their vulnerability more evident and their
dreams of success begin to feel like part of “another Brooklyn, a
different time.”

In
a panel titled “Weaving Song and Narrative,” two insightful and
passionate poets discuss the intertwining of personal narratives,
whether in voice or song. Jess presents the sweat and story behind
America’s blues, worksongs and church hymns. Olio is an effort to
understand how they met, resisted, complicated, co-opted and sometimes
defeated attempts to minstrelize them. Zhang brings her first poetry
collection, Dear Jenny, We Are All Find, that is personal,
seeking, raw and vulnerable. It’s filled with a personal sense of
embracing and living in the world adrift and a feeling of disorientation
provided by a history filled with ghosts and skeletons, a failing
relationship and disjointed writing.

In
a panel titled “Alternative History,” two exciting literary voices
discuss what could have happened in the past. Chee presents Queen of the Night,
which follows Paris Opera sensation Lilliet Berne, as she attains a
critical original role but realizes it’s based on a hidden piece of her
past. Greenidge, an emerging talent, discusses her novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, which begins as a story of family but becomes an exploration of America’s failure to find a language to talk about race.

Wonder of Childhood presented by Institute for Child Success and AIR Serenbe

Highly
regarded authors and artists who collectively share a passion for the
power of stories in the lives of children discuss and celebrate the
importance of stories in the shaping of children’s own personal
narratives, conceptions of self and of the world and their location
within our broader cultural narratives of race, gender and class.
Participants in the discussion include author Mac Barnett, author Jeanne
Birdsall, spoken word artists Mahogany L. Browne and Anis Mojgani and
Joe Waters, executive vice president of the Institute for Child Success.

In
a panel titled “Celebrating Georgia’s Pulitzer Prize Winners,” three
winners of the country’s most prestigious literary and journalism award
read the work of three long-ago Pulitzer winners. The Pulitzer Prizes
celebrate their centennial this year.

Phillips,
an award-winning poet and Atlanta-area native, presents a gripping tale
of racial cleansing in Forsyth County, Georgia, and a harrowing
testament to the deep roots of racial violence in America. Phillips
breaks the century-long silence of his hometown and uncovers a history
of racial terrorism that continues to shape America in the 21st century.

The One True Barbecue
is a journey into the Southern heartland to discover the last of the
great roadside whole-hog pitmasters — the ones who carry the heritage
and the secrets of true barbecue. Fertel chronicles the uniquely
Southern art of whole hog — America’s original barbecue — through the
professional pitmasters who make a living firing, smoking, flipping and
cooking 200-plus-pound pigs.

Food and Cooking Stage (MARTA Plaza), Sunday, 2:30 p.m.

Frank Browning, The Fate of Gender

Browning,
the former National Public Radio science reporter and bestselling
author, explores human gender geographies around the world. Linking
science to culture and behavior and delving into the lives of
individuals challenging historic norms, Browning questions the
traditional division of nature versus nurture in everything from plant
science to sexual expression, arguing in the end that life consists of
an endless waltz. The Fate of Gender offers readers of any age
new ways to understand their own and others’ identities, new ways to
interpret our recent gender-bending history and a new ability to imagine
the possibilities for our new and future society.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical (DBF) is the largest independent book festival in the country. Over Labor Day weekend (Sept. 2-4)
tens of thousands from metro Atlanta and beyond will share the historic
Decatur Square with world-class authors, illustrators, editors,
publishers and booksellers for a weekend filled with literature, music,
food and fun. For more information, visit www.decaturbookfestival.com,“like” Decatur Book Festival on Facebook or follow @DBookFestival on Twitter.

The day "Claire" from Lost mentioned me!

Books that "Stuck"

In no particular order: Bill Bryson and James Herriot....I have re-read anything they write multiple times.We're All DamagedThe End of the World Running ClubHandmaid's Tale Watership DownRiversDesperation RoadBull Mountain The Stand The Poisonwood Bible Black Beauty The Road... read once, will never read again, but it stuck. Lonesome Dove Gone With The Wind....of course Earth Abides A Brave New World

Great Memories!

Blog Archive - 2005 to Present

"She is too fond of books and it has turned her brain." Louisa May Alcott

Thank you.

To be allowed to actively participate in the book world is one of the greatest achievements I have ever had the honor of reaching.

NetGalley Galleys Accepted

The Dew is now dabbling in the world of NetGalley. You have been teasing me with NetGalley ARCs for years and I have resisted.
I have decided one must not turn into an old dog with no new tricks, so the Dew will consider eBook reviews via NetGalley, which works so well with Kindle.